Here are a few beautiful pictures from Jan Vandevyver:

José James and Jef Neve

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All pictures © Jan Vandevyver

Moodio.tv also has a video interview online from earlier this year, where you get some more background info on the record.

A big thank you to José James, Jef Neve, Michael Campagna, Neville Malcolm and Richard Spaven for a very special night and thanks to the AB crew for the ability to relive this moment.

Bruno Bollaert (cc)

The first time we saw José James perform was at the gig with Lefto, Marc Mac and Drumlesson in Depot (Leuven), soon after releasing his debut album ‘The Dreamer’ in 2008 that left everybody stunned. Later that month his performance at the Jazz Middelheim festival led to lots of exposure in the local press and was by many considered one of the highlights of that year’s festival season.
Jef Neve invited him to his radioshow Neve (Klara), and that guest performance was breeding ground for 3 more shows to happen. They were brought together on stage for the first time on a night in Brussels’ Ancienne Belgique. That concert got one of Belgiums quality newspapers De Morgen so excited, they gave it a rare five-star-rating.

Neve: “We played the standard Lushlife. Just for fun, no rehearsing. It’s a complex piece of music, but it went so easily. It felt like playing around.” Magic was happening, so they decided to get into the studio together.
Neve: “After that first concert, we recorded some songs in “The Galaxy Studio”, a little studio in Mol. We listened to the recording in the car back home and it was so fresh and sparkling; we both agreed it was the best thing we’ve ever put on tape. I hardly listen to myself, but that moment, I thoroughly enjoyed.”

The recording will be released as the album “For All We Know“. Each track from the album was recorded in one take, “only piano, voice and good acoustics” and features ballads and standards. They didn’t explicitly choose for an album full of jazz standards, though.
James: “The whole idea was a short process, and standards just felt right. And it didn’t actually become just a standard jazz album. Jef plays in his own way.”
Neve: “For me José is a story teller. He really impresses with his own way of sculpting the text and atmosphere of a standard. In fact, for most of the standards, I now only realize what the lyrics are all about.”
James: “Standards are universal. They allow you to tell more. I approach my own compositions in an abstract form, open for the listener to create his own story. A same kind of intimacy can be found in this collaboration.”
The album will be released in the spring of 2010 on Verve Recordings.

Last summer, Gent Jazz was smart enough to program the duo at the 2009 edition, and again they struck a chord. Around that time they confirmed more details about the Coltrane project “Facing East“. Two days from now, we’ll see José realising one of his dreams; scatting to the work of the legendary John Coltrane. Jose and Jef both cite Coltrane as one of their main influences.
James: “I’ve been writing lyrics to Coltrane’s compositions for the past 13 years. I can’t just sing anything, but with Trane’s music it just feels right.”

From an interview with De Morgen more then a year back we knew José James had some plans in this direction.
James: [Answering a question about who his influences were] “Coltrane rewrote the alphabet of jazz, so that’s an example in itself. I’ve even written lyrics for his compositions, but the people who manage his legacy apparently found that sacrilege. A huge disappointment, as my version of ‘Equinox’ was to primarily serve as the basis around which the rest of the record would be constructed. I see it especially as a missed opportunity to introduce a new, younger audience to his music.” But now it is happening!
James: “I’m very thankful for being invited to bring this to the public. I’m doing my very best to make this something very personal and unique.”
Neve: “You see he’s grown up with Coltrane’s music. It’s in his blood. It’s not just about copying Trane’s music, we’re adding our own arrangements. It’s a challenge for both of us.”

The first concert of this series will be on Coltrane’s birthday, 23rd of september. James and Neve will play with a quartet, including the relatively unknown tenor saxophone player Michael Cabana.

Also on the solo front, the coming months will be exciting for the two. Jef Neve has written the score to Belgium’s contender for the oscars De Helaasheid Der Dingen, which will be screening soon. The film recently won the “Prix Art et Essai” at this year’s International Film Festival of Cannes. And José James will release his second solo lp in October. About that album Jose says: “I see my debut lp ‘The Dreamer’ as my love letter to John Coltrane and Billie Holiday. “Blackmagic“, the new one, focuses on todays music, and is an ode to Marvin Gaye. Eclectic, with touches of soul and hiphop.’

Update: (22 sep) On his MySpace blog Jose James shares some more info on tomorrows concert and the upcoming Blackmagic LP.

The show at Ancienne Belgique will be recorded live and some snippets from those recordings might appear on his MySpace soon after. The full line up for the concert is: Michael Campagna on tenor saxophone, Jef Neve on piano, “Level” Neville Malcolm on bass, Richard Spaven on drums and José James on vocals.

Due to additional production needs Blackmagic will be released only in 2010 on Brownswood, and not next month as stated above. The new release date will probably be mid January.

Update (23 sep): Looks like ABconcerts.be will be streaming the concert live. From 8.30PM tonight.

More:

• Facing East at Ancienne Belgique, Brussels (NL)
• Love Is Supreme, at Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)
• More about Jame’s upcoming album Blackmagic
• MySpace José James

Sources: Jazz Magazine, De Morgen, De Standaard.

Gent Jazz’s strategy has always been to attract an audience with a couple of big and popular names, and meanwhile introducing some of the lesser known talents. The festival has brought us George Clinton, Soil & Pimp Sessions, Erykah Badu, The Cinematic Orchestra, … so we’d call ourselves regular visitors. In this first festival weekend, we picked the second day with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, the Fred Hirsh Trio + 2, and the Nina Simone Tribute concert.

The Brussels Jazz Orchestra is a 16+ piece jazz band with excellent musicians, playing the kind of jazz you expect to hear at a standard jazz festival. The concert showcased 4 compositions that made it into the finals of their International Composition Contest. Later that evening a clearly surprised Sakiko Masuda went home with the audience’s as well as the jury’s award.

After a half hour break that our friend, regular Beyondjazz guest and the evening’s dj Christopher filled with a lovely MJ cover track and lots of other of our favorite jazz anthems, the Fred Hirsh Trio + 2 got on stage. (“+ 2” meaning added trumpet and saxophone.) Impressive music by excellent musicians bringing a powerful concert, which is half a miracle considering Fred Hirsh has spent half of 2008 in a coma. (Fred Hirsh has been HIV positive for more then 20 years now.) Where half of the tunes of the band definitely were too technical for me, the other half (coincidentally being the uneven tunes – heh?) did somehow captivate me. Other reviews have indicated this concert as one of the definite highlights so far this year.

Highlight of the night was the Nina Simone tribute concert. Nina’s band leader for 41 years, Al Shackman, started the “Sing The Truth” concept the year Nina died of breast cancer at the age of 71, now 6 years back. The musicians from the original band invited spectacular vocalists like Lizz Wright, Dianne Reeves, Angelique Kidjo and Nina’s daughter Simone Simone to bring us a selection of fantastic songs from Nina Simone’s repertoire.
Mr. Shackman took the time to share stories about how it was to play, tour and live with Nina, and he sure had lots of experiences to tell us about. Maybe a bit too much talk? That, and the fact that every 2 tracks the singer switched, took away some of the flow of the concert. But, luckily, that didn’t prevent magic from happening. Lizz Wright was truly spectacular, and also Dianne Reeves left us stunned with versions of truly classic songs by the high priestess. Inspired versions of “I Put A Spell On You”, “My Baby Just Cares For Me” and “I Loves You Porgy” gave us goosebumps. A tribute night is never the real deal, but with 4 amazing singers like these, this was about as close as you can get to paying honors to the amazing singer Nina Simone was and through her records still is.

Nina Simone tribute: Lizz Wright

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Dutch speaking readers are recommended to check the local news blog Gentblogt, that has a write-up of every single day so far. Author of those is Bruno Bollaert, who’s also sharing a whole bunch of his great photos of the festival – and most other jazz concerts in and around Gent, for that matter.

For the second part, these acts are on the roster on Thursday; Briskey, Leela James and the ever-awesome Jamie Lidell on that first day. For the closing day we hope Jamie Cullum will get us convinced. And on Friday we’re looking forward to the collaboration between Jef Neve and José James.

Jef Neve is a very talented Belgian jazz pianist and composer. With his weekly radio programme on national radio Klara (classical and jazz), he’s also an important taste-maker for the jazz crowd in Belgium, so we’re glad he picked up Beyondjazz favourite José James.
On the tour that Jose James did to promote his debut album, Jef Neve’s show was one of the stops. Those who were there for the live recording, will agree there was an awesome chemistry, when the two young jazz cats played together. Ever since, they kept in touch and decided to share the stage whenever their agendas match. Jef Neve already guested in Jose’s performance at the Ancienne Belgique (Brussels, BE) earlier this year, but we missed that one, so we’re eager to know what they’ll be up to now. On www.jefneve.be we read there’ll be a Coltrane project from the two this autumn. We can only expect the best. Great music on the best sound system we’ve heard ever at a festival. Bring it on!